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T3 Corp., a small information technology firm based in Fairmont, W.Va., has obtained certification as a HUBZone Empowerment Contract Program participant through the Small Business Administration.

T3, which stands for "tomorrow's technology today," provides software, peripherals and IT services to federal agencies via a number of contracts. Its products and services include:

Network performance, computational and financial software. Web site design and development. Document management. Internet security and intrusion detection. "This is a program we've been looking forward to for a while," said Wendell Norton, senior vice president for sales and marketing at T3.

SBA's HUBZone program encourages federal contracting with companies located in economically distressed areas — "historically underutilized business zones" — to help the economy in those areas. HUBZones include areas with high unemployment or low income and those within federally recognized American Indian reservations.

To qualify for the program, a business must have its headquarters in a HUBZone, have at least 35 percent of its employees living in one and be owned and operated by a U.S. citizen. The Small Business Authorization Act of 1997 set a governmentwide goal of having 2 percent of all procurements in 2001 made through HUBZone contracts, 2.5 percent in 2002 and 3 percent in 2003.

T3, also an SBA 8(a) small business, is a part of the General Services Administration's Federal Acquisition System Technology contract, the National Institutes of Health's Chief Information Officer Solutions and Partners 2 contract, and the Commerce Department's Commerce Information Technology Solutions contract.

T3 employs eight people — four at its Fairmont headquarters and four at a Manassas, Va. Office, Norton said. The business will expand when it opens an office in Washington, D.C.'s Anacostia neighborhood after it is awarded its first HUBZone contract, he said.